Wednesday 27 February 2008

Maybe we should all be Scottish

The CEP is outraged at the SNP’s attempt to grab Berwick for her own, after 76% of the town “voted” in favour of “returning” to Scotland.

However, this vote seems to have been driven by a desire for extra public spending, rather than any desire to be Scottish. According to the Scottish Express, “vast swathes” of northern England also want to be Scottish and I would guess it is for the same financial reasons.

My own personal opinion is that we should all become temporarily Scottish. Just think abut the benefits…

  1. We would have a national Parliament as well as being over represented in the UK one
  2. We would have 30% more money to spend on public services without having to raise a single penny in extra taxes (to pay for cancer drugs, university fees, etc)
  3. We could have a popular vote to change the nation’s name to “England” and relocate the Parliament building to somewhere south of the Tweed.

The only problems I can see regarding this strategy are…

  1. Scotland would be without a Parliament. It would be very sad, but surely it’s better for 84% of the UK to be properly represented than a mere 8%. One measure to solve this could be that we divide them up into regions and appoint an English MP to be their First Minister. This shouldn’t present a problem.
  2. I can’t think which part of the UK would be stupid enough to put up with second (or should that be forth) rate services to pay for it. Maybe Northern Ireland and Wales could work it out between themselves.

Unless anyone can see any other downsides, I think we should get in touch with Alex ASAP.

2 comments:

Alfie said...

Yeah, but I draw the line at wearing a kilt.

Tommy said...

I can already play the bagpipes (evidence on request)